View source for Purpose of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers

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|H=Purpose of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers
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|S=For many years, the KEP were not well studied. A variety of possible explanations have been offered by LDS researchers over the years. One of the more recent approaches postulates that the KEP represent an attempt by Joseph and his associates to create a way to encode revelations and other sensitive data in a form approximating "pure language." Research into this theory is ongoing. 
|L1=Gospel Topics on LDS.org: "Some evidence suggests that Joseph studied the characters on the Egyptian papyri and attempted to learn the Egyptian language"
|L2=Question: What are the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language?
|L3=Question: Were the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar produced prior to the Book of Abraham?
|L4=Question: In the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, why is each Egyptian character matched to an entire paragraph of English text?
|L5=Question: Do the earliest manuscripts of the Book of Abraham demonstrate that Joseph was translating from the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language?
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{{:Gospel Topics on LDS.org: "Some evidence suggests that Joseph studied the characters on the Egyptian papyri and attempted to learn the Egyptian language"}}
{{:Question: What are the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language?}}
{{:Question: Were the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar produced prior to the Book of Abraham?}}
{{:Question: In the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, why is each Egyptian character matched to an entire paragraph of English text?}}
{{:Question: Do the earliest manuscripts of the Book of Abraham demonstrate that Joseph was translating from the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language?}}
<!-- ===The historical record already indicates that Joseph was interested in encoding certain items===
The historical record already confirms that efforts were made to encode certain things in order to prevent them from being read and understood by enemies of the Church. An effort to create such an encoding scheme using the KEP fits very well within the existing historical context. The Grammar seems to have been a project that suffered an early termination, and it was not pursued further. 
===The Double Entendre, or Dual Meaning Approach To the Papyri and the KEP===

Another approach is to assume a dual meaning exists in the Sensen Papyrus, and that the KEP represents a key to understanding.  One recent variation on this theory is the following.  This theory does not assume that the dual meaning is inherent in the text of the Sensen Papyrus itself, as if the original author of the papyrus put it there.  Rather, it is proposed that it was a system of interpretation that was imposed on that text after the fact that was invented by Jewish Egyptians.  Furthermore, the ideograms in the papyrus don't represent actual text in this system of interpretation, but represent ideas that were assigned to them by those Jewish Egyptians.  Joseph Smith gave explanations for those ideas in the KEP, and then produced the Book of Abraham text by revelation, based on those ideas.  So this theory is similar to Schryver's theory in that it assumes that meanings were assigned to ideograms.  The difference is that rather than assuming that people did it in Joseph Smith's time, it is proposed that Jewish Egyptians that did it.  This is similar to Kevin Barney's theory of Jewish Adaptation of already-existing sources, and that Joseph Smith was mimicking what those people had done anciently.

{{Main|Book_of_Abraham/Joseph_Smith_Papyri/Text/Double_entendre|l1=Book of Abraham and "double entendre" theory}} -->

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[[Category:Book of Abraham]]

[[es:El Libro de Abraham/Papiros de José Smith/Papeles egipcios de Kirtland/Propósito]]